Categories of individuals covered by the system:

Persons suspected of violating Federal statutes affecting the administration of programs
under the responsibility of SSA, including those against whom civil recovery action is being
considered or pursued.

Categories of records in the system:

Information maintained in each record includes the identity of the suspect, the nature of the
alleged offense, documentation of the investigation into the alleged offense, and the
disposition of the case by SSA or the United States Attorney.

Authority for maintenance of the system:

Purpose(s):

The information in this system pertains to suspected violations of Federal statutes. Cases
may move through several levels of SSA at field, regional and/or central office locations
during the course of documenting a suspected fraudulent situation.
Information in this system is used by SSA staff to determine if a violation of the penal
provisions of the Act or related provisions of the U.S.C. has been committed. If so, such
material is used as the basis for referral of the case to the HHS, OIG
Investigative Staff for development and investigation and, through them, is referred to DOJ
for consideration of prosecution. The material also is used to determine the direction of
investigation of potential fraud situations.
Additionally, the information is used:

to monitor the progress of development of individual suspected fraud cases to insure
timely resolution; and

for statistical analysis purposes to identify

types of cases which occur with such frequency as to suggest the need for revision of
policies and procedures relative to establishing eligibility for payments; and

trends and averages with respect to the processing of such cases and their disposition
under the Federal judicial system.

Routine uses of records maintained in the system, including categories of users and the
purposes of such uses:

Disclosure may be made for routine uses as indicated below:

To officers of employees of State governments as well as the CHAMPUS program for use
in conducting investigations of possible fraud or abuse against the title XIX or
CHAMPUS program.

To States Attorneys in connection with State programs involving the SSA.

To the Department of the Treasury to investigate cases involving fraudulent tax returns or
forgery of Social Security checks.

To the United States Postal Service for investigating alleged theft of Social Security
checks.

To State and local police authorities for the purpose of investigating the loss, theft, and/or
forgery of Medicare checks.

To a congressional office in response to an inquiry from that office made at the request of
the subject of a record.

To the DOJ in the event of litigation where the defendant is:

(a) HHS, any component of HHS, or any employee of HHS in his or her official capacity;

(b) United States where HHS determines that the claim, if successful, is likely to directly
affect the operations of HHS or any of its components; or

(c) Any HHS employee in his or her individual capacity where the Justice Department has
agreed to represent such employee;
HHS may disclose such records as it deems desirable or necessary to the Department of
Justice to enable that Department to present an effective defense, provided such disclosure
is compatible with the purpose for which the records were collected.

To third party contacts for the purpose of establishing or negating a violation of the Act or
related provisions of the United States Criminal Code.

To IRS for the purpose of auditing SSA's compliance with safeguards provisions of the
IRC of 1986, as amended.

Policies and practices for storing, retrieving, accessing, retaining and disposing of
records in the system:

Storage: Records are stored in paper form and in magnetic media (e.g., magnetic tape and
disc).

Retrievability:

Records are indexed and retrieved by SSN or by name of the subject of the investigation or
by internally assigned control numbers. Records are transmitted electronically from field
office locations to the Deputy Commissioner for FAM.

Safeguards:

Manual records are maintained in locked filing cabinets and are accessed only by employees
with a job-related need for the information. System security for automated records is
maintained in accordance with the Systems Security Handbook. This includes maintaining
paper records in a secure area restricting access to authorized employees, encrypting records
that are in magnetic media format and those records being transmitted over communications
lines. In addition, software and data associated with these records will be accessible only to
authorized employees using personal identification numbers and passwords. (See Appendix G
to this publication for additional information relating to safeguards SSA employs to protect
personal information.)

Retention and disposal:

Paper records may be retained 5 years after final disposition of the case. At the end of the
retention period, the records are destroyed by shredding. Records may also be transferred to a
Federal Records Center after they have been closed for 2 years. Data maintained in magnetic
media is retained an indefinite period of time. Once determined no longer needed, these
records are disposed of in accordance with established SSA procedures for disposal of
records; e.g., erasure of tapes.

System manager(s) and address:

Notification procedure:

Per 5 U.S.C. 552a(k)(2) the Agency is exempt from publishing procedures whereby an
individual can be notified at his/her request if the system of records contains a record
pertaining to him/her.

Record access procedures:

Per 5 U.S.C. 552a(k)(2) the Agency is exempt from publishing procedures whereby an
individual can be notified at his/her request how to gain access to any record pertaining to
him/her contained in this system of records..

Contesting record procedures:

Per 5 U.S.C. 552a(k)(2), records in this system are exempt from access by the individual
named in this system of records. .

Record source categories:

Per 5 U.S.C. 552a(k)(2), the Agency is exempt from publishing the record sources.

Systems exempted from certain provisions of the Privacy Act:

Exemption of this system to the access provisions is claimed under 5 U.S.C. 552a(k)(2)
inasmuch as these records are investigatory materials compiled for law enforcement purposes
in anticipation of a criminal proceeding.